In the U.S., Americans are terrified of Big Brother. Yet we have no problem allowing lots of Little Brothers, such as the credit card companies, to have our information indefinitely. So now we have thousands of Little Brothers and the Internet giving us hundreds of new ways to track people, said Andrew Jaquith of the Yankee Group.

Forget shredding your mail or worrying about who might have a copy of a recent credit card transaction. You have much bigger problems if you want to keep your personal information private.
In fact, personal information is now so readily available that a total stranger with nothing more than an online connection and a credit card could discover everything there is to know about you. He or she could compile a complete dossier on you, your family members, friends, work associates, or business rivals without any special investigative training.

Fears about identity theft are not limited to spyware or to records stolen from corporate databases. As it turns out, the neighbor next door can be just as big a concern.

Definitely, using the Internet to spy on average citizens is our next big social problem.